A/N-Senseless babbling. I'm having trouble writing the other prompts and the time skip so this sort of flew out of my fingertips instead.

So here's today's prompt.

Safe

Mikasa woke feeling someone sit on the bed beside her. Her thoughts were still thickly fogged by sleep and the drugs the nurses had given her, the large slice on her arm reduced to a dull burn—until she rolled over, pressing onto it.

She arched as the pain flared up her neck, making her temples throb, gritting her teeth. She felt large hands grasp her tenderly, pushing her onto her back, a rough hush.

"You're fine." His voice murmured softly, gently. "Go back to sleep."

She forced her heavy lids open. "Jean?"

"Yeah." He pushed her hair away from her forehead, his callused fingers tangling in her locks. "I just wanted to see if you were okay." He cleared his throat, pulling his hands away and folding them in his lap. "Eren and Armin are good. Both asleep, too." He told her quickly, and she was grateful.

Jean was honest. Jean would tell her the truth.

"Mikasa, I…" His breath shuddered. Slowly, unsurely, he reached out, rasping his fingertips over the bandages on her arm, chills prickling across her flesh. "I'm sorry." He bowed his head. "I'm so sorry."

She forced herself to speak through the haze of drugs, through the cotton in her thoughts. She needed to apologize. She needed to tell him that he had no reason to. She needed to thank him. But she was exhausted, she was frail and the words bubbled past her lips before she could think them through. "Jean, what do you…why did you defend me?"

He looked away, his hands clasped together tightly, his jaw clenched. It was strange, a small part of her thought, that he wasn't looking at her.

Because Jean was always watching her.

Even when she often thought she was invisible.

"I love you." He repeated quietly. "I know you don't feel the same way for me. I know you probably never will. Even though it hurts like hell to know that, I could care less. I just wish you would have waited, that you would have listened to me when I told you to stop. But you didn't think about yourself, you just threw yourself in there to protect Eren and I could be pissed at you but…" He shut his eyes, his chest shuddering. "But then I saw the way they had you against the car, the way they were hurting you and I…lost it." He looked at her, and the intimacy his eyes expressed left her feeling shaky. "I needed to protect you and…I want you to love me, Mikasa, not him. Not anyone else. I want you to see that I'm the guy that'd do anything and everything for you. But more than anything…I just want you to be happy. I want you to be safe—no matter where you go, or who you end up with."

I want you to be safe.

It was a word that twisted her insides, more so than when he'd confessed he'd loved her. It was a powerful thing, something she strove to give Eren all the time, needed to protect him more than she needed to protect herself.

Be safe.

It was a humble plea, it demanded nothing. It did not ask for you to love them in return, didn't ask you to bind yourself to them and didn't care if you felt anything or nothing for them. It was a word that did nothing for his own heart.

Safe.

But it was powerful, as well as humble. It asked you to keep trying, it asked you to keep your head lifted above the waters, it asked you to watch your step, to take care of your body and heart, to protect yourself when they couldn't do it themselves. It was a word that demanded you keep living.

It was a word that demanded everything.

"Jean…" Her eyes were slipping shut against her will.

"Go to sleep, Mikasa." He swallowed audibly. "I'm not supposed to be here, actually." He chuckled weakly. "I'll let you fall asleep now."

A word crawled up her throat, broke past her chapped lips.

"Stay."

I don't want to be alone.

He was silent for just a fraction of a moment, exhaled shakily before he answered. "Of course." His large hand engulfed hers, lifting it to his bruised cheek. "I'll stay."

She fell asleep with his lips brushing her soft palm, his scent within her lungs, his warmth pressed against her side.

She fell asleep feeling safe.